Thursday, July 7, 2011

2. Thanks to the people who motivate me! Again, my lovely wife, plus all the other awesome run club buddies at the Country Hills Running Room - especially those (past, present) in the Half Marathon Clinic. I know not every one is a fan of the RR, but wow, our group sure is something special. Turnout is always great, the atmosphere and camraderie - regardless of age/gender/speed/fitness - is just amazing!!
Also in this group is a good friend of mine, who back in February convinced me (or I convinced him?) to do a Gran Fondo this year. We originally planned to do Kelowna, but on Saturday we're going to do Highwood Pass instead. We put in some time on the trainers over the winter, got a few road rides in, but I'm sure he's got me beat because he was riding to work more than I did! What makes it even more amazing is that this time last year, he wasn't able to even ride his bike due to a big health scare. Dude, hope you read this, and know how much you inspire me.

3. Thanks to God, Mother Earth, the weatherman... or whoever else you want to credit with this amazing weather we've had this week. I don't do well with heat, but man is it ever nice. Not sure if our flowers are holding up to it, between heat and the rainy weather a few weeks ago, but oh well.

Friday, July 1, 2011

I went public with this Big Announcement at my RR clinic night this week, and thought it might be a good end to my blog hiatus.

It's a life and relationship-changing announcement.

It's going to involve some crying, some naps, probably some loss of sleep...

Running in Medicine Hat

...

I'm going to run the Calgary Marathon next spring!

The half-marathon training has been going really well-- not that I've been posting about it. I've been running very consistently for a year now (the most consistent training I've ever done), and posted a PR 1:50 in the Big Run half-marathon this past spring. I think the half will always be my favorite distance, but it's time for a new challenge!

The plan is to continue on with the half-marathon group at the Country Hills Running Room this summer, but rather than start a new cycle with them in the fall, just jump up to the Marathon group, and start upping the distance over the winter. Not sure how it'll go, but gotta set goals for myself!

Anyone else doing their first 42.2 next year? Any training tips? Any bets on whether or not I can keep up the blog consistently? :)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

I used to be able to indulge in more than a few drinks, stay up all night, get up early, snowboard all day, then do it all over again. Ah, to be young and stupid. Well, in some ways I suppose I still am...

This weekend, we went out to our place in Fernie, BC for the annual weekend with our friends. It's a great little spot that we're very, very lucky to have, and we're even more lucky to have great friends to come with us! This is the fifth year we've gone with more or less the same crowd-- sometimes we ski/ride, sometimes we do more socializing than snowsports.

Since we would miss our 20km LSD training run, I had every intention of going out on my cross-country skis for a workout. But Saturday looked far too wet from inside the condo. So we watched movies, played cards, caught up, compared iPhone apps, talked about triathlons and how crazy we are for doing them... and drank. The road into town was closed for part of the day, so we didn't even visit the brewery or the waterslides, but we still had a blast. After a great meal, we hit the hot tub, sang some songs, and played Cranium. I was a wreck!

...but based on how much snow was falling all day, I knew Sunday would be epic. Usually the plan is to leave at a reasonable time on Sunday, but I was determined to break out my board first thing. So of course, I had to wax it. At midnight. After *ahem* a few drinks. I was very impressed with myself-- I didn't cut myself as I sharpened the edges, and I didn't burn myself or the board with the iron!

I've never had (and I'm sure I WILL never have) any problems getting up for powder. Because I know that if I just get out there, all the aches, pains, and hangovers will just vanish. Sure enough, this is what I was rewarded with:

Blue skies and powder!!

I was too worried about dropping my iPhone and never finding it again to take many photos, but trust me, the powder was fantastic. There were a few runs where every other turn was a faceshot (ie the turn kicks up a big cloud of snow that smacks you in the face as you ride through it!)

These were on my favorite run (shh, it's a secret!), on the last run of the day at 1:00. We had to get home, and I was feeling so good at this point, that I thought I'd set up the spin trainer, ride for an hour, then dreadmill for an hour. Well. By the time I got back to the condo to Nicole, packed, and drove for thirty minutes (of a three and a half hour drive), I remembered that I was really hungover, and really tired! Thus the title of this blog.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Seems like only last week we were celebrating Christmas and New Year's... and suddenly it's the end of January! It might partly have something to do with being sick (second time in two months!!), this time with sinus/chest cold-- it really knocked me out for a good week, with lingering after effects for another week and a half. But feeling much better now.

So what have I been up to, you ask? Went snowboarding twice in very, very cold weather on the first and the third-- fun times. Have been doing a lot of hot yoga, and running. Haven't been spinning, because the spin trainer was seizing up on me, so I took it in for warranty, and it wasn't resolved until yesterday (more in another post...) Went swimming once, then again today (finally!). And I was asked to take over as one of the pacers for my running group-- which I agreed to do, but it's changed my runs.

Don't get me wrong, I love to help people. But we don't really have a solid "pace group" really established, as there are two clinics that have overlapped-- one is doing the Hypo Half on February 12, the other the Big Run in April. So my old pace group is sort of the "veterans", most have done more than once clinic, or have been running forever. Our long runs have been 18km the last two weekends, and we're scheduled to do 20km this weekend. On the other hand, the new group is doing 9km long run on Sunday. It will sort itself out in a week or two, I'm just more concerned with how spread out everyone is-- there are three or four of the people in the new clinic that could probably form a bit more of a pacegroup, but they all seem to run just slightly different speeds on different days...

Why am I worried about this?

Because to me, the best things about these clinics is the group. Let's face it, although we have talks once a week about gear, or physiology, or technique, or race strategy, or goal setting... it's not like you're running with a coach. You don't really get any direct feedback on your stride, or technique, you get a workout plan, and people to help you get through the workouts. I want to make sure that everybody in the clinic has someone to run with, no matter their pace!

On the other hand, maybe some people in the group like to run alone... but then, why would they sign up for a group?

What do you think? Are you a solo runner? Do you run in a group? If you run with a group, do you like to chat, or prefer to just run, or listen to your music?

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Busy weekend, haven't gotten around to posting this! You may have already read Deb's post about the race, or perhaps the one by Nicole... they both posted very detailed versions, so I'll keep mine short.

My goal going in was 22:30, but I knew it was a "stretch goal"-- I'm sure that my fitness level is there, but just looking at the course and the weather, I knew it wouldn't be easy. It turns out the weather wasn't as much a factor as the crowds! Like Deb, we were a little confused as to the actual start line, so we ended up starting near the back of the pack.

The first km, I was dodging people, and warming up. I got well behind my goal pace, and didn't manage to put in a sub 5:00 minute pace until the second km or so. Like Nicole wrote, it's awesome when you pass a bunch of people, even if it means that you started too far back, and it makes it tough to hit your goal. I finished in 23:33-- which would have been good, if the course hadn't been short.

A few thoughts about the race:

Fun-runs aren't a good place to target a PR.

The race was put on by the local run store, the Running Room. Their goal seems to be to get people running, not to put on a serious competitive race

The fact the course was a little short was very disappointing, especially since they sell Garmins.

Afterwards, we went to a friend's house for NYE celebrations. A majority of people there are turning thirty in 2011, so the hostess made a cake and we sang happy birthday... perverse. But the cake was tasty.

About PaddlePedalPlod

Paddle (Swim) Pedal (Bike) Plod (Run) is a personal blog, my quest for fitness as training for triathlon. Nothing commits one to a goal more than making it "public", and nothing is more public than a blog! In the past, I have trained with the University of Calgary Triathlon Club (UCTC) , and with the Shawnessy YMCA group, but right now I'm mostly running with the Country Hills Running Room Half-Marathon group. This Triathlon/ Running thing is really starting to become a lifestyle- everything starts to revolve around it...